Memorial Day Weekend

Friday, May 25th was Seth's 5th birthday! I cannot believe that he is 5 already. We asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday and he said go to the park! So, we went to the park! He and Brooke are such monkeys, they climb on everything! I layed on the ground under the monkey bars to get this picture. They're so cute! If I do say so myself!

Uncle Dave called us in the afternoon and said to bring the kids down to Salvatore's (a pizza place where he is the assistant manager) and he would give them a tour for Seth's b-day and then buy us some lunch! We had a great time. I think this is my favorite picture of the kids in the walk in cooler! They thought that was the best ever because they love Salvatore's!

We had cake and sang to Seth on Saturday after McKee got home from dad's house. Seth wanted a bat cake, but not a batman cake, a real bat! His teachers gave each of the kids a graduation stuffed animal and of course Seth chose a bat, and he wanted his cake to look like his new bat. I think it came out pretty cute! Again, I am biased! :) Seth loved it. It tasted yummy too! We had Grandma and Grandpa Simmons and Uncle Dan and Aunt Lynette over for cake too, oh yeah, and of course, my cutest nephew ever, Carson! Seth got a couple airplanes as gifts and he loves them! We had a nice time celebrating Seth! On Sunday we ate a lovely ham dinner over at Grandma and Grandpa's house! It's Rebecca's b-day on Wednesday so we celebrated it on Sunday! We had fun, except for the torture of trying to do family pictures!

The pictures came out great though! All 4 of the kids of course...

and our beautiful family. I think this picture shows their personalities really well! I don't think we will ever have the "perfect" family picture, but that's ok with me. As long as everyone is looking at the camera and no tongues are sticking out, I'm happy!

I also had the idea to preserve the cuteness of their tiny feet! This is all of the kids laying on their tummies with just their feet showing! Isn't it cute? From left to right, McKee, Seth, Brooke and then Tyler. This is going on my wall in the front room for everyone to see!

After the pictures and dinner, we gave Grandma her birthday gift, a vidalia chop wizard. If you haven't seen these yet, you need to check it out! It's the best chopping invention ever created!

On Monday, Memorial Day observed, we went to our Ward picnic. It was beautiful here. The wind was a little crazy but the sky was clear and gorgeous. This is a picture looking out from the pavillion where we sat and ate our food. The pond has skunked us for many years now, it's not our favorite fishing pond at all!

Here's Brooke and Daddy eating some hot dogs from the grill. Good old picnic food. We left our picnic stuffed, there was so much food there. I think my favorite food item was the ribs that were brought by the McGuinesses. MMMMMmmmmm....I will get that recipe from them. We had a great weekend, it was beautiful outside, and we were able to celebrate Seth, Grandma Simmons, and Memorial Day!

Graduation Day

Today was a bittersweet day for me as a mother. I was so proud to watch Seth perform in his final preschool show. Then, when they were finished singing and reciting their poems and fingerplays for us, the kids marched down the aisle in caps and tassels. That's right, my little Seth marched to Pomp and Circumstance today. Seth had a great turnout! Grandma Simmons, Nana, Mommy, Daddy, and Uncle Dave, Brooke and Tyler all came to watch. I can still remember when we were waiting desperately everyday for the Dr's to tell us that we could take Seth home from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Strong Hospital. It really does seem like it just happened. Now he's on his way to turning 5 (in 2 days) and off to kindergarden in the fall. Mike and I were so proud as we watched him today. Of course I was tearing a little, but I managed, barely, to keep my composure. I kind of feel bad now for all the times when I've complained about how much he's driving me nuts...because in a few short months he's starting his journey to adulthood. And believe it or not, it all starts with that one September morning, when I'll watch my baby boy climb onto that big yellow school bus...

Wacky

Well, as you can see the formatting for the last post is a little off. I was trying to spread the pics out and put some captions, but obviously that didn't go to well. Today is just a normal day. It's Tuesday, the one day of the week that we don't have to run any where during the day. The kids and I are trying to pick up the house so we can get to the park this afternoon. It's supposed to be a high of 72 I think. Later this week we are going to be planting our garden. I'm excited. Mike roto-tilled it the other day and It's looking good. Our plants that we started at the beginning of April are getting big and strong too! I can't wait to get them into the ground. Well, back to work.

Lilac Festival

Friday night we took the kids to the Lilac Festival. It was a beautiful night for it, not too hot, not too chilly. We saw our favorite band play, Uncle Plum. Mike and I have been going to see their shows for 6 or 7 years now. The kids love them too. I have a cd of their original stuff, but mostly they perform covers. Anyway...The lilacs were gorgeous and they smelled so nice. We discovered that there is a Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Highland Park. I guess I didn't know that, but we walked it. It was great because I was able to talk with McKee about war and what our soldiers do. (The embarrassing part was that I don't know much about that war. History is not my strong suit.) We got some great pictures! Enjoy!

Brooke posing with the Lilacs Tyler's cute face

The boys posing with a soldier

Seth, happy as usual!

Our Family

McKee at the canteen

Grandma and Grandpa came too drinking fountain!

They have purple

port-o-potties! My kind

of place!

Mother's Day

This morning I woke up to breakfast in bed...

and then Mike sent me on a scavenger hunt with clues to find my gift...

Mike and the kids got me a beautiful circle necklace with Mom written into the circle. It's just what I wanted.


Mike arranged all of this for me early this morning before he left for work, he's so thoughtful! I was talking to him on the phone this morning during the hunt! I love him, he's a great husband and dad. The kids so far have been the same as usual...driving me crazy! :) I'm so grateful to be a mother. I love my family, and I couldn't imagine life without them! Thanks Mike, I love you.

Busy Week

Well, we had quite the week this week. We're in the swing of things here with soccer starting up for both boys and the end of the school year. On Thursday we went to the Seneca Park Zoo with Seth for a field trip. We had a great time! Seth's favorite animal was the tiger and his next favorite was the monkeys...as it should have been since he belongs to their family! :)

the polar bears came out to play

here's seth's true mom...

Later that day we took Seth to pick up his soccer uniform and meet his coach. He's on the orange team. He's so excited to play soccer. His first game will be on Thursday next week. After years of watching McKee play, he should be a pro by now.

and then...we went right from meeting Seth's coach to McKee's spring cello concert. Unfortunately, our camer didn't take very good pictures of him from our seats, but we got great video. McKee did wonderfully. I'm so impressed with the orchestra at his school. He played a song called Dragon Hunter, Do Re Mi from the Sound of Music, and Enter the Heroes. I'm so proud of him.

It's Spring!

I know Lynette was saying that she's excited about summer...I am too, but first I'm excited about spring! We had some compost dropped off this morning from the town of Greece (it's free! yeah for free!)

The kids watched the truck dropping off the dirt! They were so excited! (yes, i know that brooke is in her underwear. we're working on potty training today!)

and I will be rototilling it into our garden (i know it doesn't look like much...stay tuned for a more garden looking patch of land :) )

so we can have healthy soil to grow our plants!

I love having a garden and watching things grow! I also love canning, and I am looking forward to the ridiculous amout of tomatoes I think I will be harvesting this fall! Everyone is invited over to dinner to try some of my spaghetti sauce!